If the original english dub was accurate

[IAmAwesome]

Would people still say it's the worst version of Dbz because in terms of voice acting? When I first watch Dbz after watching Dragonball starting in October I wasn't feeling it. It seemed to me the Bruce music was to cover up the bad voicing. As I played with orginal OST of Db and Dbz the moments without music or built up music was really strange for me as the voice acting felt bad on my ears. Had it been accurate dialog but the same voice acting will it get the same hate it gets today? Sorry if this post wasn't good. It's my first topic and I have zero writing experinces. Also sorry for my English. I'm not the best speaker of English.

[penguintruth]

Even with an accurate script, the DBZ English dub still would have been pretty terrible based on casting and performances, even by standards at the time. But at least it wouldn't result in people talking about two different shows in discussions that should be about the one show as it's intended to come off.

As of Kai, some of the English dub VAs have improved (Sabat the most). It's just that it took them over a decade to even reach the point of decent that bothers me. There's still some VAs that suck in their roles in Kai (Cranz, Burgmeier, McFarland), but not nearly as many as before, and most of the time it's likely due to miscasting.

They probably should have recast a few more of the characters, but imagine the reaction from the people who didn't like that they recast Gohan and Bulma! I think at this point, unless they do a complete overall of the English dub in the future, we're stuck with the people playing the main roles. Funimation would actually be shooting themselves in the foot at this point by recasting too heavily because the masses are more concerned with consistency than quality. And hey, if they can get their long timers to improve, more power to them.

There are some accurate dubs that nevertheless come up short in the voice acting. Neon Genesis Evangelion and Macross Plus come to mind.

[AnzuMazaki]

Than Cynthia Cranz wouldn't have screeched a lot as Chichi and Chris Sabat wouldn't have portrayed Yamcha as a Tool Ex-boyfriend and would have portrayed him as well as he did on the dubs of Dragonball and Kai.

and Sean Schemmel would make Goku the mountain hick that he is like he did on DB and Kai instead of "Superman in a Kame Gi" like in the original DB dub.

[Dr. Machismo]

What? The Ocean Dub was amazing! Peter Kelamis, Brian Drummond, Scott McNeil ftw

[ABED]

I think that all else staying the same, a good script may have helped the performances. Even a good actor can turn in a bad performance with terrible dialog. However, I think much of what hurt FUNi's in house dub wasn't the script, it was having to sound like a previous cast. Making the roles their own from the beginning would've been a tremendous plus. Furthermore, if as a matter of survival, FUNi absolutely had to use a cheaper cast, they needed a director that knew the series, a good script that was at least as accurate as Kai's or the first three movies, and a cast that sounded appropriate for their respective roles. The casting pool was slim in TX, but they limited themselves to soundalikes. Imagine if what they were looking for was actors that sounded appropriate to the characters, eg, instead of casting Freeza to sound like Pauline Newstone, they were looking for someoene who sounded like Lord Freeza.

[TheBlackPaladin]

I think that all else staying the same, a good script may have helped the performances. Even a good actor can turn in a bad performance with terrible dialog. However, I think much of what hurt FUNi's in house dub wasn't the script, it was having to sound like a previous cast. Making the roles their own from the beginning would've been a tremendous plus. Furthermore, if as a matter of survival, FUNi absolutely had to use a cheaper cast, they needed a director that knew the series, a good script that was at least as accurate as Kai's or the first three movies, and a cast that sounded appropriate for their respective roles. The casting pool was slim in TX, but they limited themselves to soundalikes. Imagine if what they were looking for was actors that sounded appropriate to the characters, eg, instead of casting Freeza to sound like Pauline Newstone, they were looking for someoene who sounded like Lord Freeza.

All very true. I've always believed that when you're taking over a role previously played by someone else--in any form of acting--that you should try to make the role your own and do your own take. If you try to imitate the previous custodian of the role, you'll never leave their shadow. Nobody can do Brian Drummond's Vegeta better than Brian Drummond, just like nobody can do Chris Sabat's Vegeta better than Chris Sabat. Apply that concept to the rest of the cast.

As far as the slim casting pool in Dallas TX, that was very true at the time. What's interesting, though, is that that talent pool is no longer slim in the slightest. In my opinion, DBZ had an enormous (albeit indirect) impact on the voice acting industry. To grossly over-simplify things...DBZ was successful, FUNimation made money, FUNimation acquired more anime, those shows made money, and now they are more or less the king of the North American anime distribution/dubbing industry. For that reason, the vast majority of anime dubbing work now takes place in Dallas.

In talking with my VO colleagues on Linkedin, when the topic of "geographic hotspots" for VO work is brought up, the first area to come up as a hotspot for dubbing work is Dallas (followed immediately by Houston). To quote the Los Angeles-based voice actor Bob Bergen, the voice of Porky Pig, "For some reason, Dallas became the dubbing capital of the US!" On a literal level, that "some reason" is simply that FUNimation is now sitting atop the food chain of their industry, and FUNimation happens to be based in Dallas. However, I don't think it's such a stretch to say that the title that helped get them to that point was definitely DBZ.

Quite interesting how things change overtime, isn't it? And for that matter, how DBZ managed to be revolutionary on a couple different levels.

[penguintruth]

The vast majority of anime English dubs are made in Texas because Bandai Entertainment shut up shop, while Funimation and Sentai are still around.

Most of the best produced English dubs for anime come from studios in California. Man do I miss Animaze.

Back to the DBZ dub, no amount of accurate scripts are going to make bad voice actors good.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Back to the DBZ dub, no amount of accurate scripts are going to make bad voice actors good.

Good voice actors (or any kind of actors) can sound bad, though, if they're given a bad script. Unfocused or off-base direction doesn't help, either. I've talked to a number of people who hate the Ocean dub, but say, "I don't know why, but they sound a lot better in the movies for some reason." In my opinion, that's the difference that an accurate script and good direction (in the case of the movies, from "Death Note" English dub director Karl Willems) can make.

[penguintruth]

Karl Willems also directed the first Ocean cast dub of the TV series. And the later much worse Westwood dub. I guess the movies can be considered a pretty good case for better scripts' effect.

Some dubs are fine in accuracy but fail to measure up in the acting department. And some dubs are actually fairly good in the acting department but are lacking in accuracy.

I guess a good English dub needs to fire on all cylinders.

[TheGmGoken]

What? The Ocean Dub was amazing! Peter Kelamis, Brian Drummond, Scott McNeil ftw

The hell is that J.B is your picture O_O. Peter sounded way to goofy and times and his vocie reminded me of Goofy from Disney. He can scream like the original voice actor but his voice was just bad IMO. Brian sounded like he belonged in a mental asylum. Never could understand why people like him. All of his screams sound like he's retarded and his voice doesn't fit Vegeta's appearance nor persona.

On topic: I think people would still bash it because of the voice acting. I also think the english fan-base would't be as big because of the voice acting at times was bad. Bruce cover that up as you said.

[DBZ Mick]

It might have helped more but the voice acting wasn't the best either.

[dprez]

Less people would have thought it was "gay", if the lame dialogue was gone...